2011 Talk: This is Where Unschooling Lives ~ Take Two

A photograph...a snapshot...a moment frozen in time. This particular snapshot contains two kids. On the outside, it looks very simple, perhaps even quite ordinary. But the path leading up to this frozen-in-time-moment is actually quite extraordinary...one that involves a choice by the parents to follow the children and their needs/desires/and interests from the moment they were born. This path is strewn quite abundantly with Trust, Respect, Honor, Celebration, Laughter, Tears, Growing, Learning, Evolving...all converging into rich full lives and deep family connections. Join Anne as she revisits a snapshot that became the topic of her conference talk (of the same name) at the 2005 Live & Learn Unschooling Conference...revisiting that year when her boys were 14 and 11, and connecting it to now, with her boys being 20 and 17.

2009 Talk: What's So Radical About Radical Unschooling?

The living is in the learning, and with radical unschooling, the living is MIGHTY! Anne Ohman will be exploring various aspects of this glorious unschooling life, with a light shining specifically on that part that makes it all so very radical.

2008 Talk: Get Out of Your Head and Into the Moment!!

Unschooling is in the living, and there's no need to look any further than *this* very moment in life for all the glory that unschooling is! Anne will share her core beliefs and ideas about unschooling, especially those that have allowed her to let go of the voices of yesterday and the worry about tomorrow and choose to be Fully Present with her children in this moment. Wonderful things are waiting to happen!

2007 Talk: Peace and Flow and Light

If you were to ask my children, ages 16 and 13, what unschooling is, they might not be able to tell you a lot about it, even though it's all they've ever known. They do not live their days thinking about how unschooling is real learning from life. They live their days focused ON that life. That is their job as unschoolers. To Live.

While my job as an unschooling parent has more layers, my focus is never on how to get my children to learn. My job is learning how to bring Peace to our home and our hearts, how to allow the flow of life to show us our direction, and how to allow my children to Shine so brightly from being Exactly Who They Are that their Light allows me to see the Truth of the world more clearly.

I'll be talking about all of this and if you'd like to join me, I'd be honored.

plus, This is How We Give and My Mantra: More

In Connections, an ezine of unschooling and mindful parenting, Anne Ohman shares her journey with readers in her column called Oh, How We Shine!  Pull up a chair and listen as she reads two of her favorite articles and gifts us with her insights and a glimpse into the lives of her always-unschooled family.

2006 Talk: This is Where Unschooling Lives

Join Anne as she examines one oh-so-ordinary snapshot moment in her children's unschooling lives. See for yourself all of the connections that just one day can bring, as she shares stories and information about how her family came to live in this space where infinite possibilities exist (and how you can too!) ... this glorious place called unschooling.

plus, "I Am What I Am"

2011 Talk: Unstrung Heroes

There are parts of parenting that make us feel good; you know the stuff we do with, and for, our kids that generate a sense of satisfaction in the process. But, there's the other side of parenting where we can feel challenged. Sometimes we have to deal with our own anger, our own frustrations, our own sadness, our own confusion, while simultaneously helping our kids do the same. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed at times. It's these challenges that allow us to grow as parents, and allow our kids to see our humanness, as well as our uniqueness, and most importantly how to navigate through these feelings. Francette will share her epiphanies of parenting through the challenges while staying true to her radical unschooling beliefs.

2010 Talk: R U Parenting?

Unschooling is fundamentally an educational philosophy based on children learning by living in the "real" world as opposed to the artificial environment of school, or school at home. The rest of the child's unschooled life often looks like any other schooled child's life minus the school work. Radical unschooling approaches the entire life of a child from the radical perspective that children live consensually with their parents. Their lives look very different from the lives of other children. It is often misconstrued that parents become less involved in the child's life, but nothing could be further from the truth. Francette will discuss the joys and challenges associated with parenting the unschooled child.

2009 Talk: Piglet's Inspiration: A Radical Unschooling Story

One of the most commonly shared experiences of radical unschoolers is dealing with the mainstream ideas and beliefs of family members, friends, neighbors, coaches, instructors, acquaintances, strangers, and sometimes ourselves. Of the many gifts a radically unschooling family will bestow upon their children an important one is advocacy. It is up to the parents to advocate on behalf of their children so that the children can grow knowing they are loved for the wonderful individuals that they are. Join Francette as she discusses how to know when parental intervention is needed on behalf of our children, how to find peaceful solutions for our children to the many situations that may arise (or have arisen), and what happens if we don't.

2008 Talk: Dreamweaving

Unschooling families are free from the academic constraints and stresses of formal education thus providing the ideal environment for dreams to flourish. Whether a sleeping infant dreams of nursing, a toddler daydreams about flying, a child aspires to be a gold medalist at the Olympics, or a teenager longs to own the latest and greatest video game console, all children have dreams. In fact, not only do children have dreams, but parents do as well. Parents can encourage their children's dreams while supporting their own, helping make everyone's dreams a reality as often as possible. Dream weaving is when dreams of the past are woven with the dreams of the present and the dreams of the children are connected with the dreams of their siblings and parents. Francette will share the joys and challenges of dream weaving through her family's experiences.

2011 Talk: Against the Current

By unschooling, we're taking a very obvious departure from what the dominant culture expects us to do, but I don't think it's always clear from the get-go just how many small ways we're pushing against the current in the choices we make and in our day-to-day lives. Added to that, many of us have also made radically different choices in many other aspects of our lives beyond what's strictly covered under the label of unschooling: in how we live, what we think, and how we navigate in the world. How do you navigate when the way you live seems so different from those around you? How do you find people to connect with when you find yourself struggling to find common ground with many people around you? To answer these questions, and many more I'll be discussing in this talk, is an ongoing process in my own life, a process I'm happy to be sharing and discussing this year at TUC.

2010 Talk: Unschooling is Forever

Unschooling is the realization that life and learning are not two separate things. Yet even with this realization, sometimes end-points start sneaking in. But in a philosophy such as this, can unschooling (life=learning) really end neatly, can you just unschool grade school or highschool, finish up with unschooling, then move on? Unschooling is to me, as I continue through what are usually considered the college years, not only the realization that life and learning are not separate, but also the realization that unschooling can be a lifelong process of growth and discovery. Learning is everywhere. School, be it elementary, high school, or institutions of "higher education", is optional! I'll talk about my lifelong journey of unschooling, my feelings on learning and education, and about what happens next for an unschooler when those "high school years" have finished.

2010 Talk: How Does School's Existence Affect Us?

Deschooling is a surprisingly far-reaching process, especially for parents, because school rituals and language have embedded themselves so deeply in our psyche. Noone speaks of a three year old, but of "pre-schoolers". At fourteen my son Rowan is an amazing young man. He is confident and curious. I can see that treating him as a "life partner" rather than a submissive in a relationship is creating lots of room for him to grow into a thoughtful young man. But there is no roadmap to creating an exceptional child. If your motive for choosing to live freely is love and joy the possiblities are endless. Don't model kindness, just be kind. Don't model respect, just be respectful. Schooling is about ends, unschooling is about means. Deschooling involves developing trust and learning to find what's important. Unschooling is about relating and concensus. It's about exploring the world passionately. It's about finding a way.

2009 Talk: Learning to Read Naturally

Sometimes we get stuck doing things in certain ways and invest so much energy in trying to do what we have always done better, that we do not substantively and fundamentally challenge what we are doing and explore what others are doing. In this talk I hope to get us to rethink how we teach reading and share what other ways people are using to successfully learn to read. In our current system of mainstream schooling, I believe it would be safe to generalize that at least two assumptions around learning to read are prevalent: First, that children should learn to read early and, second, that learning to read requires deliberate systematic and plenty of intervention from someone else. Through personal experience, other people's experiences and what researchers and scholars say, I hope to share how people learn to successfully read on their own at different ages and by asking for help when they need it rather than having instruction externally imposed on them.

2008 Talk: Freedom: Children Are Capable

Children are among the last acceptably oppressed group. The way to release them from this condition is to give them rights that they currently do not have, but need to have. Unschoolers are in a unique position to lead this battle and to convince the rest of the world that children are capable. I know this intuitively and from my personal experience, which I will share.

2007 Talk: Learning From Children

The assumption all too often, unfortunately, is that children learn from adults because adults have more experience and knowledge. By observing, listening, and following, I want to share some of the greatest lessons I have learned from my two remarkable teachers who are now aged two and four. In paying this respect to their influence on me since their birth, I wish to celebrate the wisdom we can glean from children and ultimately contribute to ending the oppression that so many children sadly endure.

2009 Talk: But What About Math?

Next to, "But what about socialization?" the "But what about math?" question is one of the most common misperceptions about the potential shortcomings of a radically unschooled life. The myth that mathematics is the one school subject that can't reasonably be 'covered' unschoolingly is brilliantly easy to debunk -- and for reasons you might not expect. Explore with Cindy how radical unschooling organically incorporates the beauty of mathematics into a life balanced with all manner of other artistic and creative endeavors.

2008 Talk: A Covenant to Compassion: One Unschooling Mother's Healing Journey

Nine years ago, Cindy Bablitz and her husband Gary found themselves in the fallout of a business no longer viable, homeless and penniless. The moment also found them expecting -- after more than four years of infertility -- their first child. Come and hear the story of how this babe, born with a potentially fatal heart defect, and his two brothers who followed, led one mother on a healing journey that ultimately led to unschooling. "Committing to unschooling with my sons at first felt like a gift I was giving to them," Cindy says."But lately I've been connecting the dots between 'their' unschooling and my own healing from a life of confinement, criticism, chaos and conditional love." Learn how this family's joyful foray along a mindful path of holistic wellness and authentic meaning has been rooted in unschooly reverence for freedom, compassion, curiousity and unconditional love.

2009 Talk: Wholeness: In Search of Our Children's Gardens

Where can children in today's world go to find their whole, true, full Self? Where can families go to find their true center, their guiding principle? Join Amy Carpenter Leugs as she explores unschooling as a place -- a surprising land of both fairy and fact, a homeland and a place of adventure, where the splits and opposites of our modern lives can come together into wonder-filled wholeness.

2007 Talk: Awareness: A Soulgazer's View of Unschooling

As unschooling parents, we have the tremendous honor to witness our children's learning as it grows into true awareness. Awareness of self, society, the world and their link to it -- all of these and more pour forth as our children make connections and build their unique vision of reality. In traditionally schooled society, the word "learning" often carries the connotation of an intellectual process, separate from body and spirit. But the word "awareness" describes how much more substantial and soulful the unschooling life can be.

How can unschooling parents tap into the rich and flowing meanings of "awareness"? It begins with an abiding respect for the child's soul, that mystery that lies deep within them and makes them who they are. The soul of a free child is a wondrous thing -- a complex river that rushes, swirls, cascades, twists and bends around back on itself. Are we up to appreciating this gift?

Listen and wonder along with Amy, a long-time soulgazer, as she explores how truly big and wide and deep our lives can become with unschooling.

2007 Talk: Learning in Harmony: How An Unschooler Learned to Play the Piano

Do you think learning how to read music, understand music theory and play piano pieces using both hands requires weekly lessons, perhaps for years? Join Sue, a former music teacher, as she talks about how unschooling has taught her that playing the piano can be a completely unstructured and self-directed experience for a child who is allowed to explore, question, and learn in total freedom.

2006 Talk: The Spirit of Unschooling

Wendy Priesnitz spins the story of how and why she and her husband wove a life that allowed their two now-adult daughters to learn with without school in the 1970s and 80s. The warp of this inspirational tapestry is constructed of the threads of change that will allow both families and society to create a learning environment that is self-directed, respectful, non-coercive and intellectually authentic.

2006 Talk: Crossing Over to Unschooling: If You Can't Build a Bridge, Try Flying!

Our sons were seven and nine years old when they were both diagnosed with clinical depression. They both became suicidal. Reeling, my husband and I immediately set about removing impediments to joy from our children's lives. The first thing to go was school. As our journey from schooling to unschooling began, I busied myself trying to build a solid bridge to carry us from one to the other. Fortunately, my children's shouts caused me to look up from my Important Work: there they were, flying across instead!

2006 Talk: Unschooling Passions

Focused learning can be beautiful ... and sometimes a bit scary! Are you worried that their unbridled enthusiasm for one particular topic will limit their learning? Relax and come along for the ride as Pam describes how the whole world can come to life for your children when they are free (and encouraged!) to immerse themselves in their deep, passionate interests.